Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement Part 4

Sowing the Seed.--Partial failure with August seeding is due to faulty methods. We are accustomed to broadcasting clover seed on top of the wheat fields and obtaining a stand of plants. A majority of the seeds do not become buried in the soil, or only very slightly, and yet germinate. Moisture is necessary, but in the spring, when this method is used, there is moisture at the surface of the ground under the wheat plants much of the time. The conditions respecting moisture are not unfavorable in most springs, and we come to think that a small seed should not be buried much if any. In the autumn, again, we sow timothy with the wheat, and while more prompt germination is secured by covering the timothy seed with the hoes of the drill, we often have seen a successful seeding made without any covering being given. The work is done at a time when fall rains may continue for days and, when the sun's heat does not continue long, the covering given by settling the seed into the loose earth is sufficient. Moisture does not leave rapidly because the air is not hot.

Deep Covering.--In August the air is hot, and the surface of the ground is dry nearly all the time. A shower may be followed by hot suns.h.i.+ne, and the water at the surface evaporates quickly, leaving the ground covered with a dry crust. There are two essential things to bear in mind: the seeding should be made only when there is enough moisture in the ground to insure quick germination, and preferably as soon as feasible after a rain, and the seed should be put down where moisture can be retained. It is poor practice to sow any kind of small seeds before a rain that seems imminent. If it forms a crust, or causes weed-seed germination along with that of the gra.s.s seeds, only harm results. When seeds are put into a dry soil, and a light shower comes, there may be germination without sufficient moisture to continue life in the plants.

The seeds should be well buried: the soil and air conditions are different from those of the spring. It is best to wait for moisture, and to save the seed if it does not come, but when enough water has fallen to make the firm soil moist, the danger of failure is very small if the seeds are buried one to two inches deep. A surface harrow will stir the surface, and then the seeds should be sifted down into the soil by another harrowing. A light plank float, mas.h.i.+ng the little clods and pressing the soil slightly together, finishes the work. The plants will appear above ground within a few days, the only danger being in a beating shower that may puddle the surface before the plants are up.

Seed-mixtures.--When gra.s.s is wanted for hay as well as fertility, the clovers and timothy compose the greater part of a desirable mixture wherever the clovers and timothy thrive. Probably this condition always will continue. The clovers are needed to supply nitrogen to the soil and to put protein into the hay for livestock. They give way, in large part, or entirely, the second year. Alsike is more nearly perennial than the red which practically lasts only through its second season, when its seed crop has been made, and its function performed. The sod is chiefly timothy in the second season. A little red-top is desirable, and the percentage should be heaviest for quite wet land or very dry land. When fertility is the first consideration, and the sod is left only two or three years, the following mixture is good, and is for one acre:

Red clover 10 pounds Alsike 2 pounds Timothy 8 pounds Red-top 2 pounds

When a mixed hay is wanted the first year, the following mixture may be found better for the purpose:

Red clover 6 pounds Alsike 2 pounds Timothy 12 pounds Red-top 2 pounds

Mammoth clover seed may be subst.i.tuted for the red without change in number of pounds.

The amount of timothy and red-top in the second mixture suggested calls for a liberal supply of plant-food, and this is true of any heavy gra.s.s mixture. If fertility is not present, the seeding of gra.s.s should be lighter, but the clover should not be less in amount for a thin soil than for a good one. The question of fertilizers is discussed in Chapter XX.

CHAPTER IX

SODS FOR PASTURES

Permanent Pastures.--There is a large total area of land that can be brought into profitable production of food only by means of pasture gra.s.ses. A small part is too low and moist for tillage, but a larger part is too rough or too infertile. It can be made to yield profit in gra.s.ses that are harvested without expense by animals. The gra.s.ses afford feed and at the same time protect the soil from waste. The efficiency of much pasture land is kept low by poor stands of gra.s.s, the encroachment of weeds, bushes, and briers, close grazing, and the failure to supply fertility. When making a sod for mowing, the aim is to select varieties of plants that mature near the same time. Pastures need varieties maturing at different times, and this is a matter under control when temporary pastures are used. Permanent pasture land soon becomes occupied by the gra.s.ses best fitted to soil conditions or most able to crowd other plants.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Good Pasture Land in Chester County, Pa.]

Seed-mixtures.--Several varieties of gra.s.ses should be used when making a sod for grazing. They occupy all the surface more quickly and surely than a single variety, and the pasturage is better. The character of the soil determines the character of the mixture in large measure. When land can be well fitted, a heavy seeding is best, but the cost is nearly prohibitive for thin, rough lands. A brief description of the leading pasture gra.s.ses east of the semi-arid region, and north of the gulf states, is given:

_Blue-gra.s.s._--No other pasture gra.s.s equals Kentucky blue-gra.s.s wherever it thrives. It makes a close sod, preventing the growth of weeds and withstanding tramping, and contains a high percentage of protein. While it is best adapted to limestone soils, it is grown with success on clay land outside of limestone areas. It is slow in making a heavy sod, as a rule, and partly because the seeding is too light on account of low germination. The rule is to seed with timothy and other gra.s.ses which furnish the greater part of the pasturage for two or three years. When seeded alone, 20 to 30 pounds of seed per acre should be used. It may be seeded in the spring or fall, and preferably in August or September.

_Timothy._--In a mixture of pasture gra.s.ses timothy has a place wherever it thrives. It is not naturally a pasture gra.s.s, standing grazing rather poorly, but it makes a large amount of feed quickly. The gra.s.s is one of the poorest in protein, and the pasturage gains much in quality when the timothy gives way to blue-gra.s.s, as it will in two or three years if the latter has favoring soil conditions. In most mixtures it is given a leading place. It may be sown in the spring, but preferably in the fall, and 15 pounds of seed will be found satisfactory, when seeded alone.

_Red-top._--If red-top were as palatable to livestock as blue-gra.s.s, it would have one of the most prominent places among our pasture gra.s.ses.

It is valuable anyway, thriving where land is too acid for blue-gra.s.s or timothy, or too thin. It is adapted to wet land, and yet is one of our surest gra.s.ses for dry and poor land. It makes a sod that lasts well, and yields better than most other gra.s.ses. Notwithstanding its lack in palatability, it should be in all pasture mixtures for soils not in the best tilth. When used alone, 15 pounds of seed per acre should be sown. The seeding may be made in spring or fall.

_Orchard Gra.s.s._--In most mixtures recommended for pasture orchard gra.s.s has a place, but it should be a minor one. It makes early growth in the spring, which is a point in its favor. It stands shade and also drouth better than some other gra.s.ses, but is not at home in a poor or wet soil. It grows in bunches, and becomes unpalatable if not promptly grazed. It needs crowding with other gra.s.ses when grown for pasturage.

When seeded alone for hay, 30 pounds of seed per acre may be used.

_Other Seeds._--There are other gra.s.ses often recommended, but they have no wide acceptance. Meadow fescue is a palatable gra.s.s that would be used more often in pasture mixtures if the seed were not high in price. All land seeded for grazing should have some clover sown for sake of soil fertility. The alsike remains longer than the red or mammoth, and is better for undrained, thin, and acid soils.

Yields and Composition of Gra.s.ses.--The Ohio station has compared the yields of various gra.s.ses and their composition. The following table is arranged from its data, as given in Bulletin 225:

+-----------------+----------+---------+----------+ | Name | Average | Pounds | Pounds | | | Tons Hay | Protein | Protein | | | per Acre | per | per Acre | | | | Hundred | | +-----------------+----------+---------+----------+ | Timothy | 3.49 | 6.38 | 223 | | Blue-gra.s.s | 2.18 | 10.12 | 221 | | Red-top | 2.81 | 8.53 | 240 | | Orchard gra.s.s | 2.19 | 7.81 | 171 | | Meadow fescue | 2.10 | 8.97 | 188 | +-----------------+----------+---------+----------+

Suggested Mixtures for Pastures.--For ordinary conditions, Williams suggests the following mixture for an acre of land:

Blue-gra.s.s 10 pounds Timothy 6 pounds Red-top 6 pounds Orchard gra.s.s 4 pounds Red clover 4 pounds Alsike clover 2 pounds

For use on rather wet lands, and especially off the limestone, he suggests:

Red-top 12 pounds Blue-gra.s.s 8 pounds Timothy 4 pounds Alsike clover 4 pounds

Hunt recommends the following as a basis, to be modified to suit varying conditions:

Timothy 15 pounds Kentucky blue-gra.s.s 10 pounds Meadow fescue 2 pounds Red clover 4 pounds Alsike clover 3 pounds White clover 2 pounds

The Cornell station recommends the following for good land:

Timothy 8 to 12 pounds Kentucky blue-gra.s.s 4 pounds Meadow fescue 1 to 4 pounds Orchard gra.s.s 1 to 4 pounds Red clover 6 pounds Alsike clover 3 pounds White clover 1 to 2 pounds

For poor lands it recommends this mixture:

Timothy 8 to 12 pounds Red-top 4 pounds Canadian blue-gra.s.s 4 pounds Red clover 6 pounds Alsike clover 3 pounds White clover 1 pound

Zinn, of West Virginia, recommends the following mixture for permanent pasture:

Timothy 4 pounds Red-top 4 pounds Orchard gra.s.s 4 pounds Kentucky blue-gra.s.s 7 pounds Red clover 2 pounds Alsike clover 2 pounds White clover 1 pound

Renewal of Permanent Pastures.--There is much pasture land that could not be broken with profit for reseeding. There is neither time, nor money, nor opportunity at the owner's hand for this purpose, and often the loss of soil resulting from was.h.i.+ng would be a bar if the labor would cost nothing. The renewal of such gra.s.s lands can be made with profit if pernicious weeds are not in the way. Plant-food, lime, and gra.s.s seed are wanted. A disk or sharp spike-tooth harrow, used in early spring or after an August rain, will give some fresh earth for covering the seeds. A complete fertilizer always is needed. The clovers should go into the seed-mixture used.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sheep on a New York farm.]

Destroying Bushes.--The absence of sheep is evident in the appearance of the greater area of permanent pasture in the mountainous regions of the eastern states. Bushes, briers, and other weeds must be destroyed if pasture land would be kept in a profitable state, and only the sheep or the goat is the fully efficient aid of man in caring for such land.

The presence of dogs makes the tariff on wool, or lack of it, a minor matter. The cost to the country, in indirect effect upon pastures only, due to unrestrained dogs, is incalculable. The maintenance of good sods without sheep is a problem without solution in some regions.

Close Grazing.--Much harm results from turning livestock on pastures too early in the spring. The ground is kept soft by spring rains, and the hoofs cut the turf. The gra.s.s needs its first leaves to enable it to make rapid growth, and the first gra.s.s of spring is not nutritious.

Close grazing is harmful, exposing the soil to the sun and robbing it of moisture. When winter comes, there should be sufficient gra.s.s to serve as a mulch to the roots. It acts like a coat of manure, giving new life to the plants the next spring. Good sods are not easily or quickly made, and when they have been secured on land unfit for the plow, their value measures the value of the land itself.

CHAPTER X

THE COWPEA

A Southern Legume.--The soils of the cold north are protected from leaching during the winter by the action of frost. The plant-food is locked up safely for another year when nature ceases her work of production for the year. Farther south, in the center of the corn belt, there are leaching periods in fall and spring and oftentimes during the winter, but winter wheat thrives and, in ordinary crop-rotations, covers much of the land that might otherwise lose plant-food. As we pa.s.s from the northern to the southern states, the preservation of soil fertility grows more difficult and at the same time the restoration of humus becomes easier. The heat makes easy the change of organic matter to soluble forms, and the rains cause waste, but the climate favors plants that replace rapidly what is lost. In the work of supplying land with fertility, directly and indirectly, the southern cowpea has an important place. It is to the south what red clover is to the north, and it overlaps part of the red-clover belt, having a rightful place as far north as the Ohio Valley, and portions of Pennsylvania.

Characteristics.--The cowpea is closely related to the bean, and is very unlike the Canada pea, which is a true pea, thriving only in a cool climate. The cowpea has been grown in the southern states over one hundred years, and the acreage is large, but it never has come into the full use it deserves. Being a legume, it stores up nitrogen taken from the air, and unlike red clover it makes its full growth within a short period of time. It can grow on land too infertile for most kinds of valuable plants, and on better land. The vines can crowd out nearly all varieties of weeds. The roots go to a good depth and are thickly covered with the nodules of nitrogen-gathering bacteria.

Varieties.--There are many varieties of the cowpea, and confusion of names prevails, although some stations have done good service in identification of individuals carrying a number of names. The very quick-maturing varieties adapted to northern conditions do not make as much foliage as the rank-growing ones that require a relatively long season, but some of them are heavy producers of seed.

There are varieties requiring six months of southern heat to bring them to maturity, and some failures attending the introduction of the cowpea into more northern lat.i.tudes have been due to bad selection. A few varieties reach maturity within two months of hot weather.